So on Christmas Eve, they dig a shallow grave for their father and stash their mother in a coal bunker.įrom his house next door, Lennie notices something fishy going on in the girls’ garden. Rather than risk foster care, they prefer to wait until Marnie turns 16 and can legally care for Nelly. The story opens in Glasgow, where the abused and neglected sisters have decided not to report the deaths of their drug-addicted parents to authorities. Their elderly gay neighbor, Lennie, is the third narrator, delivering most of his monologues to his late partner. Marnie is the primary narrator - rough, tough and fiercely protective of sister, Nelly, whose quaint narrative voice provides a good contrast.

The book is structured in three separate voices, which deliver the story in monologue form. Author Lisa O’Donnell began her career as a playwright, and her debut novel The Death Of Bees owes something to that discipline. Similarly, when Marnie, 15, and Nelly, 12, bury their parents in the back garden, you wait with every page for the moment of discovery. Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, The Death of Bees is an enchanting and grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.Chekhov famously observed that if a loaded pistol appears in the first act, it should certainly be fired in the second. And as one lie leads to another, darker secrets about Marnie's family come to light, making things even more complicated. He soon realises that the girls are all alone, and need his help - or does he need theirs? As the year ends and another begins, the sisters' friends, their neighbours, and the authorities - not to mention the local drug dealer, who's been sniffing around for their father - gradually start to ask questions. Lennie, the old guy next door, has taken a sudden interest in his two young neighbours and is keeping a close eye on them. Only Marnie and Nelly know how they got there.

Fifteen-year-old Marnie and her little sister Nelly have just finished burying their parents in the back garden. Too young to smoke, too young to drink, too young to fuck, but who would have stopped me?' Hazlehurst housing estate, Glasgow, Christmas Eve 2010.

WINNER OF THE COMMONWEALTH BOOK PRIZE 2013 'I'm Marnie.

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'Donnell